Mobile Robotic Issues for Urban Search and Rescue

Abstract The paper considers three important issues in the design and utilisation of teleoperated urban search and rescue robot systems, namely localisation, locomotion and human-robot interfaces. Prototype systems are designed, developed and presented. For the localisation aspects a cost effective infrared beacon based system is presented for 2D applications. For the locomotion aspects a four-limbed adaptive articulated tracked vehicle is presented having the capability of changing its mode of operation to overcome large obstacles and move effectively in unstructured environments. For the human-robot interaction aspects, key user-centric metrics are proposed and investigated to assess the effect on overall system performance. The metrics considered are situation awareness, tele-presence and workload. Experimental results for all three aspects are presented.

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